The Biden administration broke up the JetBlue-American Airlines partnership because they were concerned with competition in New York, and didn’t want competitors colluding. Or maybe they just wanted to make sure there wasn’t a third viable competitor to take on Delta?
Because it sure seems that the administration is more interested in keeping competition out of New York than ensuring it.
It’s not clear whether it’s regulatory capture, ignorance of consequences, or incompetence but the Department of Transportation has once again extend slot usage waivers and this time they’ve done so for a year.
- Slots are the right to take off and land at congested airports – here we’re talking about New York-area airports.
- These are given free as property rights to incumbent airlines.
- Normally airlines have to use the slots or potentially lose them.
- However the government has now said this requirement is waived through October 2025.
Incumbent airlines get to keep their slots. They don’t have to fly to and from New York to keep them. And nobody else can take their place. This means fewer seats in the market (less supply) and therefore higher prices.
Slots themselves are a giveaway (subsidy) to airlines, and congestion pricing would be a better solution for taxpayers and passengers. Slot waivers are even worse because they keep out competitors without even having the requirement that incumbent airlines provide service.
The ostensible reason for the waivers is that the FAA’s air traffic organization cannot get its act together on hiring. They use antiquated technology. New York TRACON refuses to certify new controller to game overtime rules.
Reportedly the N90 facility spends 2.5 times as much on overtime as the number two facility, with overtime costs greater than Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Southern California combined despite fewer flights per controller, and staffing is done independent of demand, overscheduling during the week to get overtime over the weekend and overstaffing Islip to keep everything else understaffed. (Islip is 3 times as expensive per flight as other area airports.)
The FAA finally made progress on a solution they’ve been pushing for years: move Newark approach-control to the Philadelphia facility. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had been blocking this on behalf of the air traffic controllers union.
Slot waivers are anti-competitive. The Biden administration is raising airfares in the New York market. They’ve had years to solve controller capacity but haven’t done so, just as their predecessors haven’t. The FAA’s air traffic organization has mismanaged technology upgrades for decades. And all that Congress managed in FAA reauthorization was to threaten closing the agency’s NextGen office at the end of next year.
Great article, thanks Gary ! Loved the quote: “It’s not clear whether it’s regulatory capture, ignorance of consequences, or incompetence but the Department of Transportation has once again extend slot usage waivers and this time they’ve done so for a year”. You nailed it, it’s all three.
“It’s not clear whether it’s regulatory capture, ignorance of consequences, or incompetence…”
Why choose one — I vote for all three!
I totally disagree. This limit helps keep the number of delays down. An operation that has less delays is much better for everyone. If the total flight level is down it makes no difference on which carriers are operating.
Time to get off your high house on comments and get to the realaty that more controllers are needed and until that is accomplished all you are doing is shuffling the deck.
Terry, I think that the question is whether we should tolerate the govenment’s incompetence in filling these open controller slots. The government taxes airfare at an average rate of 22.6%. Why aren’t they spending the appropriate amount of money to fill these slots?
Also, why are they letting the unions call the shots here and why is it appropriate for Senator Schumer to block an easy solution that would benefit his constiuents just to benefit the union?
We accept incompetence from the government that, if it happened in the private sector, would lead to endless Congressional hearings, fines and CEOs out of jobs.
We need to stop being passive sheep and hold our elected officials accountable
Very insightful article but for the love of all that’s holy can we not see any atrocious AI images anymore?
@Dean
Having worked directly with the appropriate parties involved and knowing the situation, the move to PHL center is not an “easy solution”. In fact, it will make everything far worse. Not mention is that this move will actually cut the EWR sector headcount to even lower current levels. Furthermore, the “training” required to get the new controllers up to speed will be accompanied by a long-term decrease in capacity. I’ve heard that arrival rates will be cut by more than half for at least 18 months. How is that improving the situation??